Health Benefits of Taking Vacations

Do vacations improve your health? This question is a no brainer as the obvious answer is Yes! Vacations impact positively on your health in the following ways;

Vacations reduce stress:

One of the first suggestions you would get when you are stressed is to go on vacation. This is one of the most important benefits of taking vacations. According to the American Psychological Association, vacations reduce stress by removing people from the environments and activities that they associate with stress and anxiety. In the new environment, the person becomes relaxed and refreshed. Stress brings about conditions such as headaches, backaches, body pains, and heart irregularities. If you are stressed up, you may need to take a short vacation to get relief.

Improved Productivity:

We all want to be productive, we want to do more at the same time, we want to multitask but we often undermine our ability to do more at high levels. A study by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that high-level professionals who were asked to take time off work were significantly more productive in all indices than those who had spent more time working. It is a fact that the more productive you are, the happier you become and when you are happy you will excel at what you do.

Better Sleep:

There is nothing as discomforting as an inability to sleep, restless nights and disrupted sleep. These are common complaints that people give and it reveals the fact that we have too much on our minds. When our minds are overburdened with thoughts it affects our ability to sleep. We end up having less focus, less alertness, impaired memory, increased risk of having accidents and a decline in the quality of our lives.  Researchers are of the opinion that vacations can help interrupt the habits that disrupt sleep. Habits, like working late into the night or watching a laptop, tv and phone screen, can disrupt our sleep. If your work is stressing you out and you find that your sleep is disrupted because of anxiety or tension, take some time and go on vacation to reset your sleep pattern.

Prevention of Heart disease:

There are many medical studies that have highlighted the cardiovascular health benefits of taking a vacation. In one of such studies, men at risk for heart disease who skipped going on vacations for five consecutive years had a 30% more likely chance of suffering heart attacks than those who took at least one-week break each year. It was realized that even missing one year’s vacation was associated with a higher risk of heart disease. The study also revealed that women who went on vacation once every six years or less were eight times more likely to either develop heart disease, have a heart attack or die of a coronary related cause than those who took at least two vacations in a year.

Final words:

Vacations are very important and beneficial to us. We must endeavour to take breaks and go on long and short term vacations to enjoy these benefits. Have you gone for a vacation this year? Are you planning on going on one soon? What has been your benefits of taking vacations? Share your thoughts with us.